BURNABY, B.C. — A python spotted in a Metro Vancouver conservation area is a long way from its native African home.

City of Burnaby staff saw the snake curled up on a road on Burnaby Mountain near Simon Fraser University around noon on Monday, said Dave Ellenwood, the city’s director of Parks, Recreation and Cultural.

Not knowing whether the unusual brown and black reptile was native to the area, workers snapped a picture and took it to a local group that rescues wild animals, which determined the snake is definitely not from B.C.

In fact, the snake — which was about three feet long — is a ball python, a nonvenomous constrictor.

Somebody probably dumped it in the park

“What we generally do is we try and consult people who know more than we do about these sort of things,” Ellenwood explained. “And that’s when they got the information that it was an exotic pet. They speculate that somebody probably dumped it in the park.”

Staff returned to the park to capture the snake, but it had slithered into the bushes and couldn’t be found.

It’s rare that the Burnaby staff see such pets in parks, but it has happened before, Ellenwood says.

“Irresponsible people will think it’s a good idea to take an exotic pet and dump it off in an open space, a green space, thinking it would be better off for it.”